How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[wheels]

Sodium silicate (30%) is the most common ingredient in most glues. It is just a binder that holds the particles together and is good up to 1200F (650c), so it is good for pyrolysis.

You can make a mud out of the 9 parts ash + 1 part crushed glass + 1 part sodium silicate and form your high temperature insulation around your retort. Plain old mud will work as well, but will not hold as well as the above formula.

It is my understanding that silica gel is sodium silicate, and it is easier to come by. So, you would dissolved silica gel at 30% in water to get your 30% solution of sodium silicate.

Silica Gel is a Silicon Dioxide which can be made from Sodium Silicate. But it is not in itself, Sodium Silicate, nor able to be turned back into Sodium Silicate. Nor can not it be dissolved in water, or much else for that matter. It will absorb water and is extremely hydroscopic, hence its use as a moisture absorbent.

[jonathan]

retort insulation

so can l use another material like cement to binder and holds the particles together..ash+glass+cement or other material?

[wheels]

or can i use something else then sodium silicate? thanks all

Do you have access to any of the following.
Clay
Silica Sand,( or Crushed Glass will do the same job)
Zeolite or Perlite or Pumice or Fire Ash with plenty of small pieces of Charcoal in it.
Portland Cement? This Cement has Sodium Silicate in it and several other good products that make it good for resisting high temperatures.
Mix 3 parts Portland Cement with 3 parts Perlite or Zeolite or Pumice or Fire Ash and 4 parts Silica sand (or the Crushed Glass). Mix it all together really well and then add in 4 parts Clay. Add water. Not too wet, but just wet enough to be able to shape and mold it. If you have access to Lime, you can add 1 part of Lime and that will make the mix more pliable.

[jonathan]

retort insulation

thanks wheels..i will try portland cement i thing i find in malta....can i use white cement? l meant normal cement that used in house walls?

[Beyond Biodiesel]

I was just doing some research on building materials, and found WonderBoard® Lite Backerboard. It is an accessible product that might withstand the 800F (425c) retort temperature, especially if it is lined with aluminum flashing.

A fiberglass mesh reinforced-cement backerboard for residential and commercial tile, stone, slate and thin-brick applications. High-flexural strength, along with moisture resistance, makes WonderBoard® ideal for both interior and exterior substrate applications.

8 Clever Uses for Silica Gel

Silica gel is a granular, vitreous, porous form of silicon dioxide made synthetically from sodium silicate. Silica gel is tough and hard; it is more solid than common household gels like gelatin or agar. It is a naturally occurring mineral that is purified and processed into either granular or beaded form. As a desiccant, it has an average pore size of 2.4 nanometers and has a strong affinity for water molecules.

Silica gel is most commonly encountered in everyday life as beads in a small (typically 2 x 3 cm) paper packet. In this form, it is used as a desiccant to control local humidity to avoid spoilage or degradation of some goods.

History
Silica gel was in existence as early as the 1640s as a scientific curiosity.[3] It was used in World War I for the adsorption of vapors and gases in gas mask canisters. The synthetic route for producing silica gel was patented by chemistry professor Walter A. Patrick at Johns Hopkins University in 1919.

In World War II, silica gel was indispensable in the war effort for keeping penicillin dry, protecting military equipment from moisture damage, as a fluid cracking catalyst for the production of high octane gasoline, and as a catalyst support for the manufacture of butadiene from ethanol, feedstock for the synthetic rubber program.

Properties
Silica gel's high surface area (around 800 m2/g) allows it to adsorb water readily, making it useful as a desiccant (drying agent). Silica gel is often described as "absorbing" moisture, which may be appropriate when the gel's microscopic structure is ignored, as in silica gel packs or other products. However chemically, material silica gel removes moisture by adsorption onto the surface of its numerous pores rather than by absorption into the bulk of the gel.

Regeneration
Once saturated with water, the gel can be regenerated by heating it to 120 °C (250 °F) for two hours. Some types of silica gel will "pop" when exposed to enough water. This is caused by breakage of the silica spheres when contacting the water.[4]

Preparation
A solution of sodium silicate is acidified to produce a gelatinous precipitate that is washed, then dehydrated to produce colorless silica gel.[5] When a visible indication of the moisture content of the silica gel is required, ammonium tetrachlorocobaltate(II) (NH4)2CoCl4 or cobalt chloride CoCl2 is added.[5] This will cause the gel to be blue when dry and pink when hydrated.[5] An alternative indicator is methyl violet which is orange when dry and green when hydrated.

[wheels]

thanks wheels..i will try portland cement i thing i find in malta....can i use white cement? l meant normal cement that used in house walls?

I really can not say. I don't know what the White Cement is made from. Many other Cements do not withstand high temperatures. Portland Cement is different to all other Cements that I know of. If you can get Portland Cement, then it is certianly the best choice.

The board that BBD is referring to is a Cement Fibre board. It is a light Grey colour. Yes it will withstand high heat, but being a Cement, it does not insulate that well. It will not withstand Direct flame on it's surface for long periods, as It will crack and fall apart.
Also known around the world as (although each may have a slightly different mix) Fibre Cement Board, Hardie Cement Board, Hardie Backer Board, Durock. Actually I just did a quick on line search and found it under these names in different countries.
VIROC Portugal, Cement bonded particle boards
Building Products, cement board, cement bonded particle boards, BETOPAN, BETOPANPLUS
DUROCK cement board
James Hardie Building Products, Hardie Backer, cement board
CertainTeed Fiber Cement Underlayment/BackerBoard Specification Sheet
CertainTeed Fiber Cement MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET
Why is Cement Backer Board So Great? (And What to Use it For! By Lee Wallender, About.com
iVillage Home & Garden Network, What are por's and con's of Wonderboard vs Hardybacker
National Gypsum PERMABASE BRAND CEMENT BOARD
RMOROC cement board, cement bonded particle board - CBPB
single-family-home-remodeling.com Greenboard and Cement Board
Euroform Products Limited, Versapanel, Cement Particle Board

[jonathan]

retort proplems

thanks a lot everyone..........

[EndaRecar]

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[jonathan]

retort insulation

i found portland cement....soo can i use wood ash + glass + portland cement for first try? thanks

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Hi jonathan, I think you can leave the crushed glass out, if you are using Portland cement, and I would suggest a 50-50 blend, and see how it goes. If it is too weak to support itself to build an oven with, then reduce the ash content.

[jonathan]

retort insulation

thanks a lot beyond biodiesel i will try it like that

[wheels]

thanks a lot beyond biodiesel i will try it like that

How about do a little test batch first. One with some crushed glass (providing it is easy to get of course) and one with out. The thing is, all Cements are weak on their own. The strength come from the materials mixed in to Cement. The Cement is just a Binder that holds all the particles together. The crushed glass is virtually a pure Silica Sand and will give the mix a lot more Supporting strength and may even aid in stopping any possible cracking.
The idea of the Ash is that it is a good insulator and will help reduce the transmission of heat. But it is also very weak and will not aid in giving the concrete any strength. Hence a reason why I suggested some solid Coke in the Ash, just to give a bit of solid material to help bind it all. The Coke will still be rather weak, but better than just Ash on it's own.
Just an idea, I have never tried anything like this, so it may or maynot work. You could make the main structure using the mix described in the other posts and then make a mix of just Cement and Ash, mixing them into a paste like mix and then applying that as a Plaster to the inside of the Cement. That would possibly act as a good protective insulator to the main Cement structure.

[jonathan]

retort insulation

thanks wheels...it is not proplem to try it like that asswell..i will try it with glass and without glass...thanks all my friends...

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Well, kedigen, that is a very impressive piece of equipment. I hope you built, and successfully operated, some smaller reactors first. Say start with 1L, then go to 20L, then 100L, etc.

You do mention putting fire brick "into the kiln" I hope you mean that is outside of the retort, not inside. And, since you are using an oil burner to fire this beast, then I would expect that you will have a cavity surrounding your retort where the hot gasses of combustion warp around the retort, and exit at the top, with steel surrounding the cavity, with fire brick outside of that.

[Excalibur]

kedigen
Please keep the forum updated with photographs of progress. With 10 days to completion you must have a sizeable team working on construction. Thanks.